The University of Missouri’s research reactor, MURR, is increasing its production of crucial medical radioisotopes in the wake of the supply chain disruption caused by a downed reactor in the Netherlands. 

In late January 2022, a high-flux reactor (HFR) in the European country was shut down due to a water leak detected in its cooling system. Though the root cause of the issue has been established and a plan of action has been put into place, the Nuclear Medicine Europe Emergency Response team has informed stakeholders that there is still no target date for resuming operations. 

Inevitably, the outage will cause global supply shortages of critical medical isotopes used for imaging and therapeutics. But help is on the way, according to a statement released by the University of Missouri Wednesday. 

“An interruption in the supply of medical radioisotopes is a critical issue since, unlike typical drugs, these drugs cannot be stockpiled due to their short half-lives, or their quickly diminishing effectiveness as their active ingredients undergo radioactive decay,” explained J. David Robertson, the executive director of MURR. “This means if these drugs are not produced this week, cancer patients will not receive their treatments next week.”